Manziel proves he’s not just a one trick pony at pro day

COLLEGE STATION – It was quarterback Johnny Manziel’s idea to wear a helmet and shoulder pads at his pro day at Texas A&M on Thursday.

No one attending could remember a quarterback throwing with a helmet and pads at his pro day. Manziel connected on 61 of 64 passes, with one bad throw, working with his quarterback coach, San Diego-based George Whitfield Jr.

“He put the armor on, and he was in attack mode,” Whitfield said afterward. “Before the combine, Johnny asked me about it. He wanted to know what teams respect. I told him they respect challenges.”

So Manziel put on his helmet and pads and took snaps from center, rather than throw in shorts and a T-shirt and just drop back with the ball as other quarterbacks do at their pro days.

“I told Johnny you get to create your own test,” Whitfield said. “You can make it a spelling bee, or you can make it a calculus exam.

“That’s the unique thing about this. You get to go in for an interview, but you get to do all the talking and all the presenting, and you get to format it the way you want to.

“Similar to every single thing we’ve ever done: Let’s make it as challenging and as uphill as possible, so it’ll be sweeter at the back end.”

Whitfield and his team from San Diego came to College Station last week and began working on the pro day earlier this week.

“We took a lot of time trying to lay out that script,” Whitfield said. “Every throw was part of NFL offenses and concepts – from the footwork to the reads to the eyes.

“The thing he’s been challenged so much about – what people aren’t really willing to give him – is that he can be a systematic player. Everybody thinks he has to work off script, that he’s a jazz artist. He can read sheet music.

“We tried to iron out some Mozart, and hopefully, their ears caught it.”

Whitfield wasn’t surprised Manziel didn’t skip a beat when George H.W. and Barbara Bush were driven in on golf carts with Secret Service agents.

“We’re three rounds in, and the dialogue is all football, and we felt a big movement along the sideline,” Whitfield said. “All of a sudden, Johnny turned around and said, ‘That’s the president.’

“I’m glad he has that no-flinch mentality, because I don’t know how I would have been if I’m playing my heart out and a president rolls up and sits right behind you. That’s no easy thing.

“If an elephant came trotting across the end zone, Johnny would be the same way. When the president sits right up on your flank here, he’s like, ‘Oh, OK. It’s cool.’ But I’m sure he felt it.”